Our Oct. 9 editorial opposing hospital-mandated flu shots for nurses contained several errors concerning Seattle’s Virginia Mason Medical Center and its flu-shot policy. The hospital is not affiliated with MultiCare Health System, which has been sued this fall by the Washington State Nurses Association over the flu-shot policies at Puget Sound-area hospitals it oversees. Virginia Mason was sued much earlier by the WSNA over a flu-shot policy it implemented in 2004. The courts ruled that it could not mandate shots for members of the nurses union, because the hospital had not negotiated the requirement as part of the union contract. This fall, Virginia Mason announced an extension of its policy, adding the 2009 H1NI vaccination. Moreover, the hospital did not recently “shelve” that flu-shot policy due to a vaccine shortage, as the editorial stated. The hospital, instead, allowed that members of the nurses union weren’t being required to get the flu shots, because of the earlier court decisions. However, union nurses who refuse to get the seasonal and swine flu shots are required by Virginia Mason to wear masks until the end of flu season.